Margarita al Pastor - It's a Tacos al Pastor Devilish Cocktail

Margarita al Pastor
Photograph © Leticia Alaniz 2018
All Rights Reserved

Want to know about a tongue tickling summer beverage that has tacos al pastor written all over it?  It’s the Margarita al Pastor.  Literally, if you love tacos you don't neeed a translation for tacos al pastor.  If you like the namesake tacos, you’ll love the take on this smooth Margarita that’s an explosion of flavors reminiscent of the famed Mexican street tacos.  It’s a diablura (devilish) of a cocktail that will make you hungry and by the third sip, you’ll be hooked.     

It starts by combining spices, herbs, pineapple juice, lime juice … and all that goes into a traditional Margarita (except triple sec, it's sweet and sour enough without it).  Creative mixologist Gabriel Orta shares his recipe for a spicy cordial that can be pre-made for the Margarita al Pastor.  But my take on the Margarita also includes muddled cilantro and basil as the base for the preparation.  It’s kind of like the fresh cilantro you add to your tacos before enjoying.  

Have a Margarita al Pastor and enjoy the recipe below.  Let me know in the comments what your friends or family say about it when you surprise them with this amazing taco-in-a-glass cocktail that pairs the flavors of Mexico, elixirs, and the famed blue agave mezcal of the regions.  One last thing, I recommend you use good quality spirits. 

First Step: Chorizo Spice Syrup

Ingredients:

2 qt of water

1/4 C cumin seeds

1/4 C smoked paprika

1/4 C black peppercorns

3  dried chiles, halved and deseeded  (Ancho, Morita, or Chipotle)

1 C sugar

1/2 C mezcal joven

In a large pot, bring water to a boil.  Add the cumin seeds, smoked paprika, peppercorns, and dried chiles.  Stir and boil, uncovered, for 10 minutes.  Add sugar and stir to dissolve.  Once the sugar is dissolved, reduce heat, simmer for another 5-10 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Strain liquid into a container.  When liquid has cooled, pour half (4 cups) into a container and add 1/2 a cup of mezcal joven.  The rest of the spice syrup can be reserved for up to a month in a sealed container, refrigerated for another batch.  Just make sure to add the 1/2 cup mezcal before making more cocktails.      

Margarita Al Pastor

Ingredients

• Ice cubes
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• 1 oz pineapple juice
• 1 oz Chorizo spice syrup
• 1 1/2 oz 100% blue agave mezcal 
• Fresh cilantro, fresh basil leaves

Spicy Rimming Sugar

• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• Sliced pineapple for garnish

• Directions
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• Roll a cocktail or traditional Margarita glass around with a cut lime or a piece of pineapple, then press into the spicy rimming sugar on a plate.  Set glass aside.  In a cocktail shaker muddle a few leaves of cilantro and one basil leaf.  Next, fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add lime juice, pineapple juice, Chorizo Spice Syrup, and mezcal. Cover and shake until mixed and chilled, about 30 seconds. (In general, the drink is ready by the time the shaker mists up.)  There should be a froth on top from the vigorous shaking.  Fill glass with ice cubes,  Strain margarita into the glass.  Finish with a little dusting of the spicy rimming sugar and garnish with a pineapple slice.  Serve.  
• 
  
• © Leticia Alaniz 2018  All Rights Reserved   

Black Margarita - Margarita Negra

Black Margarita - Margarita Negra
Photo Leticia Alaniz © 2017

Margaritas are quite famous, but have you tasted a black margarita?  A black margarita is like a piece of the night in which the moon, the stars, and dreams culminate in a mysterious, dark and elegant cocktail.  It’s a romantic and gothic elixir that will wake your most poetic nocturnal inspirations.

It pairs well with a black tie tuxedo and a little black dress.  I’m nocturnal by nature and I love entertaining at night with delicious food by the moonlight.  So I served black margaritas at my most recent Noche dinner.  Noche is my secret dinner club in which friends gather for a feast, amazing cocktails and wine.  

Black margaritas are simple.  Its foundation is still tequila, sour mix, and fruit liqueurs.  But for this margarita I took a chance on an obscure or lesser known tequila from Los Valles, Jalisco called El Padrino de Mi Tierra. (El Padrino - The Godfather).  

Only 100% blue agave is used in this Reposado Tequila. Brick ovens roast the agave for 36-54 hours, allowing the tequila to retain the sweet natural mellow flavor. Slow-fermented 48-60 hours and then distilled in copper pot stills for a rich taste with notes of caramel and oak.  It’s excellent for high-end tequila cocktails.

El Padrino Reposado tequila is “rested”, which means it will have aged in oak between two and eleven months prior to bottling.  This gives the tequila a light color and depth of flavor. 

The black margarita gets it’s dark, striking black color from the Blue Curaçao and raspberry liquors.  Serve very chilled and enjoy the midnight stars! 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 ounces El Padrino Reposado tequila
• 1 ounce Blue Curaçao
• 1 ounce raspberry liquor such as Chambord 
• 1 splash of lime juice
• fill with sour mix and cranberry or pomegranate juice

Mixing instructions: Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake well and pour into a salt or sugar- rimmed glass. Garnish with lime.

Written by Leticia Alaniz

©2017

Andhra Prawn Pickle or Royyala Pachadi

Andhra Prawn Pickle/ Royalla Pachadi
Photo by Leticia Alaniz © 2017

Spices and seafood are magic in southern India.  When spices are used to preserve fruits, vegetables, meats, and seafood in combination with dried chiles, you’re tapping into the vast culinary treasures that India has to offer with a wealth of thousands of years of pickling.  Each region has their family recipes that are generational and the ancient practice of preservation by curing with salt, vinegar and sugar were a way to keep perishables for longer periods of time.  Especially long after harvest seasons or when droughts or other natural disasters might have caused food scarcity or ruined crops.  The richness of pickling has evolved over centuries and it’s not easy to pinpoint exact recipes or methods of preservation.  

The tradition of pickling can be traced back since time immemorial and perhaps that’s why almost every culture in the world discovered their own methods to preserve their food.  But in India, drying and pickling is a long standing tradition that seems untouched by time.  Particularly so in the southern states of the subcontinent.

My first taste of prawn pickle was in Andhra where I was given a very proper Indian welcome with the most aromatic, unforgettable introduction to the wonderful taste of the preserved coastal prawns.  It was culinary love!  Lyrical descriptive words don’t do it justice.  But I will say that prawn pickle can be described as smoky, sour, tangy, hot, spicy, gingery and savory.  It’s one of the first things I wrote about in my journal.  Those are amazing gastronomical experiences that I’ll never forget.  

After being on the hunt for a really good prawn pickle as I remember in Andhra, I simply could not find one commercially prepared back in the US that had the same amazing flavor.  I longed for the prawn pickle that gave any Indian meal an instant burst of tantalizing flavor.  I romanticized the aroma from my memories and it became an obsession to find it.  I didn’t have such luck.  

I felt the hunger of exoticism and ancient gastronomy, of tea and cardamom, of ginger and golden turmeric, hunger for the sensuality that wakes the senses with the aroma of the wet earth during the monsoons and the sweet and sour of Andhra pickles.  Therefore, in my search I studied many commercial pickles and their flavors, some were described to me orally but not in precise measurements, others I found in books, but not quite the same, until I developed my own recipe for the prawn pickle I had been looking for for so long.  It’s the flavor that took me back to the India I remember, to the people and to the food that harbors so much history and the perpetual fruits of it's land.  

For this particular Andhra prawn pickle or royyala pachadi as it's called in telugu, I think I’ll start my own tradition of pickling recipes and keep this recipe in the family.  But I do hope that all that come to visit me may enjoy what makes this recipe so special, and may we raise our glasses to Indian culinary traditions and to many shared plates.

Photo Leticia Alaniz

Written by Leticia Alaniz © 2017